A citizen's tip helped game agents in Crawford County apprehend two men who were suspected of poaching deer from a roadway.

On the night before the opening youth deer season, conservation agents Patrice Reese and Darrin Wood apprehended the two subjects.

According to a Missouri Department of Conservation news release, the two men had been hunting from a roadway earlier that day and shot the deer. The pair then continued to road hunt and use a spotlight to illuminate deer and were apprehended by the agents after the suspects spotlighted and shot at more deer in a privately-owned field.

Tyler Dover and Chase Summers, both of St. James, were cited for the game violations including taking deer from a public roadway, taking deer from a motor vehicle, taking deer in closed season, taking deer by aid of artificial light, illegal possession of deer or deer parts, possession of deer taken in violation of trespass laws, and trespass in the first degree.

A concerned citizen alerted Reese about the suspected poaching. In Missouri, conservation agents rely heavily on public information to make arrests.

Deer that the two men shot were confiscated and the meat donated to a local needy family.